


Questing and Catnaps

by AzureReprise



Category: Starbound (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, mods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 15:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8213963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzureReprise/pseuds/AzureReprise
Summary: In all honesty, Esther could have stood to be a bit pickier in choosing the hero of the universe. An airheaded felin with a penchant for stealing isn't exactly the ideal candidate for a champion.





	

“Wake up.”

The electronic voice cut through the air, urging the orange feline in the lower bunk to stir a bit, ears flicking. “Wake up. You have overslept.” The voice spoke again, finally waking up the catgirl. She let out a mighty yawn, pushing the yellow sheets back and rolling out of her bunk.

The impact with the floor was quickly passed off as an attempt to wake herself up further. The felin girl quickly stood up and tugged her pajama pants up further, though it hardly concealed her white-furred belly. Truth be told, she preferred to go without clothes at all, but after one too many complaints from near everyone, she’d taken up the sullen hobby of dressing herself.

She was only midway through her stretch when she finally acknowledged just what the A.I. had said to her. “Crap!” She shouted out, nearly slamming against the door as it opened. After almost stumbling down the small set of steps, she took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself, looked over to the rows of lockers and bolted to hers. Or at least, she thought it was hers.

“You’re remaining remarkably serene for running so late. Well done you.” The electronic voice came once more, with some semblance of artificial sarcasm. She hissed back in annoyance, throwing open her locker almost too forcefully. The decorative dress uniform was unceremoniously tossed on over her “normal” clothes, with a flyer for the graduation she just so happened to be running late to, stuffed into a pocket along with a few pixels she had.

“Hey Tula! Got a second to chat?” A droll of a human, whom can only be noted by their buzzcut, asked while waving her over. “Oh, sorry, I really gotta go, I’m running late!” She said, quickly walking past while adjusting her sleeves “Oh, well that’s fine! Just remember, no matter how far away you are, you always have friends on Earth!” He called out as she furthered herself from him and approached the end of the hall. “Dammit!” The curse, trailing from behind her halted her steps, “Stupid machine ate my pixels!” She shook her head, resumed her march, and ignored that minor interruption. She smiled at the thought that she’d still have friends down here, even if she was assigned to a planet so far away. A purr began to rumble up in her as she walked out onto the glass walkway. The tree here was always so beautiful.

“Weary. Every day, more petals to sweep.” The synthesized voice reminded her that the tree’s upkeep was a bit tedious, given that she’d been stuck doing it for a week as punishment for stealing her teacher’s belt. “Frustrated. They have me sweeping the bridge every hour, like I’m a machine or something.” The glitch janitor droned, shaking his head. And once more, Tula had to push down the urge to inform him that he was a robot. Glitch never responded to that one well. All the same, she kept walking past that amazing tree. She didn’t have time to roll in the petals today.

“You’re really cutting it close, Tula. Please head inside before the ceremony starts.” A rather stern voice from one side said to her. Inwardly, Tula sighed. It was one of her teachers, and she always thought that the apex was a bit too strict. “Dick…” She muttered as the door shut behind her, looking around at the sparse few graduates that were still filing into their seats. She was nudged from behind by a human with fiery red hair to match her own. “Hey Tula! You’d think one of the first felin to become a Protector would be on time!” He said with a little chuckle, prompting the catgirl to roll her eyes. “Yeah yeah, you’re still not in your seat yet either, Dave!” She shot back with a smirk, and getting a laugh in response. “Anyways, you don’t look too bad for having just gotten up.” He said as they took their seats.

Any response she had in mind was cut off when the lights dimmed and a hush fell over the crowd. A spotlight shone down, illuminating the white-haired woman with a Matter Manipulator at the podium in the center of the room. Leda Portia, the Grand Protector.

“My fellow Protectors.” She said, smiling wide with pride and voice booming even without the microphone helping it bounce around the large room. “Today we come together to witness the Protectorate grow. For over five hundred years we have stood proud here on Earth, drawing together races of all kinds in the name of peace. Our task: to protect our fellow beings; to support, house, and educate those that seek our aid, and to foster accord to those who aspire to it.”

Tula’s ears twitched. Something felt wrong here. The ground was shaking.

“Today, in the name of peace,” Leda continued, looking around the room, her eyes sparkling. “We welcome our newest compatriots, and present them each with our greatest tool…” She trailed off, raising the Matter Manipulator high. “The Matter Manipulator-- Huh?” She looked around as the room shook, much more noticeably now. “What was that?” Tula followed her instincts, leaping out of her seat and into a painful roll on the metal floor. And in that instant, chaos erupted.

The walls burst open, letting in massive, writhing tentacles. A moment later, the stands suffered a similar fate, sending the graduates on them flying. Tula gawked in horror as Leda struggled to make sense of the situation, her mouth open in shock. “Wha-what the…?” The catgirl’s attention was drawn back to the Grand Protector just in time for a tentacle to burst up from underneath her, lifting her into the air. Leda struggled a bit, before her eyes landed on the felin, the only member of the group still conscious. Her face set in grim determination.

“You, Graduate!” She shouted at Tula, before tossing down the Manipulator, which Tula caught somewhat clumsily. “Take the Manipulator and run! Get to safety!” She roared, turning her attention back to the tentacle seconds before it yanked her below the stage . Tula could do nothing more than stare at the gaping hole and ruined auditorium for a moment. “It’s not safe to remain here!” The synthesized voice of her S.A.I.L. whirred in her ears. “You must proceed to the shuttle pad!”

This got her going quickly to her feet from her crouched position and sprinting off away from the massive tentacles that were infesting the grand hall. Though, rather soon, she was met with an obstacle. “It appears the ceiling has collapsed.” Her S.A.I.L. spoke, noting the massive pile of dirt and sod that stretched to the broken ceiling, where it had poured in. “I can see that!” Tula shouted, warily glancing over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being chased. A moment later she took a breath and tried to focus on her training, gripping the Matter Manipulator tight. A moment later, a blue beam fired from it, tearing away at the blockade and manipulating the gravity around it to pull it to her, and subsequently storing it in the manipulator’s ‘pocket.’ “I’ll never understand how these things work…” She muttered to herself as the wall of dirt was broken down enough for her to scramble through.

She was about to open the next door, when her S.A.I.L. chimed in again. “Scans show the room beyond this door has flooded. It would be best not to go in… I advise you find a way around.” Tula swallowed hard and nodded . “Right… Water.” She said shaking her head. She clipped the Manipulator to her belt and looked around, spotting a roof access ladder not far from her. Naturally, the felin climbed it as fast as she could, before throwing open a hatch at the top. Once she was out, Tula couldn’t help but take a moment to survey the once proud city. Massive, winding tentacles rose out of the ground to wrap around the buildings, choking them as smaller tentacles forced their way inside to decimate the interior.

“The scale of this disaster is immeasurable. The destruction occurring is beyond my capacity to quantify. You must leave this planet immediately.” Her S.A.I.L. chimed in as she crouched over a fallen protector. The felin girl sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Rest in peace.” She whispered, before standing and making her way to a vent that led back down into the building.

A shiver ran up Tula’s spine as she landed ankle-deep in water, but she pushed on nonetheless. There was no time to whine about getting a bit damp. Another sod and grass barricade on one of the glass walkways between buildings was torn away by her Matter Manipulator, freeing the path to the loading bay and the shuttle pad beyond it. Unfortunately for her, this building was infested by tentacles, including one blocking off the exit to the shuttle pad.

“The chest sitting on that conveyor belt should contain a weapon. Please arm yourself!” That synthetic voice in her head chimed as Tula quickly found and started to root through the chest. A moment later, she’d pocketed a nice sum of one hundred and fifty pixels and drew a rather sleek broadsword out of the box. Her eyes were sparkling at it, and a wicked grin came to her face when she then eyed the tentacle blocking her way.

Tula let out a loud battle cry, charging at the offending obstruction and hacking away at it. “Now you’re freaking sushi! Die!” She shouted out, making sure it had long since stopped moving before she carried on. “I have bypassed the preflight checks. Get aboard!” The A.I. cried out, the ramp lowering from the closest human shuttle. The cry fell on deaf ears, however, as the felin had stopped to steal a few medical supplies from a nearby crate.

This stopped immediately when Tula had to hack another tentacle away from her tail, the felin now rushing for the ship and flailing her sword for defense. Granted this tactic worked enough to get her inside, the blade was now broken. As soon as she was inside, the ramp retracted and the door slammed shut just in time to sever a tentacle trying to slip inside. The tentacle, however, was still alive and writhing, so Tula quickly set the ship to autopilot and locked the squirmy creature in the cockpit.

Escape from Earth was not peaceful, with tentacles lashing out from the surface to batter her ship, scrambling its systems and damaging it’s FTL drive. Despite this, the shuttle and its feline cargo escaped the atmosphere to drift in space. Tula let out a weary sigh, dropping her nearly ruined weapon and slumping down against the wall in the teleporter room. It wasn’t long before she drifted to sleep from the exhaustion of her escape, plagued by nightmares of the destroyed planet and the abomination that attacked it.


End file.
